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(1) Living near a large Japanese community is apparently important to Tanaka (or at least his wife) according to multiple reports.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, New York City tops the list of the ten places with the largest number of Asians, coming in at 1,134,919. Los Angeles is second with 483,585 and Chicago is seventh with 166,770. No city in Arizona makes the list.

Seattle, by the way, is 11th with 100,727. That’s important because the Mariners are viewed as a potential dark horse candidate to land Tanaka.

As a Latin American, I HATE this type of reasoning. Derespina may be a wonderful man who simply doesn't understand the issue, but "Asians" probably means Jack Schmidt to Tanaka, who is JAPANESE (pray tell exactly why a Japanese athlete should feel happy to be surrounded by Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, etc.?).

We Latin Americans have the same problem: we get lumped together, without any understanding of regional or country-to-country differences (I am Panamanian, and to the extent we have commonalities with anybody, it's with the Caribbean nations of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, and to a lesser extent, Venezuela).

Good point in #2, according to this, Honolulu is actually #1 for most Japanese-Americans, followed by LA. Then a huge dropoff, followed by NYC, San Fran, then Seattle. Really, there aren't significantly more Japanese-Americans in NYC than San Diego, and when you consider per capita, San Diego would blow NYC away.

Yes NYC's Asian community is heavily Chinese and Korean, and I would be surprised--but open to the possibility--if that mattered one whit to him. I would imagine LA would have a huge advantage if Japanese-American presence is really important. My Japanese-American step in-laws always say Seattle is a great city to visit for encountering lots of Japanese-American culture, more so than NYC, though 1) this could reflect their west coast bias and 2) obviously reflects my poor skills as an NYC tour guide.

While it is important to consider cultural groups when doing this a larger broad race contingent in an area makes it much more likely that the products and services that you are used to and comfortable with will be available to you or at least closer to what you expect than White American product and services.

There are a lot of Japanese business people at any one time in New York so there are plenty of high end restaurants and bars that cater to them if Tanaka is in to that sort of thing. Good thing for the rest of baseball Honolulu doesn't have a team!

5, I don't pretend to understand Tanaka's reasoning, but TO THE EXTENT that having a large Japanese community around, I don't see how ASIANS are in any way important to Tanaka.

As to Seattle, I was there 3+ years ago for some business meetings, but I had a morning off and took a city tour. A big deal was made of the one-time Japanese section of old Seattle, and how it abutted the Chinese section.

I get why absolute numbers matter, but shouldn't percentage of population also matter? In other words an equal number of Japanese Americans would stand out much more in Seattle than they would in NYC, because there is so much more total humanity in New York.

And yes everyone else points about Asian <> Japanese are valid, but I wanted to quibble in a different direction.

We Latin Americans have the same problem: we get lumped together, without any understanding of regional or country-to-country differences (I am Panamanian, and to the extent we have commonalities with anybody, it's with the Caribbean nations of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, and to a lesser extent, Venezuela).

I never realized any of that kind of stuff until my best friend married a girl whose parents were from Mexico. I learned that folks from Mexico aren't particularly fond of folks from the Carribean (especially Cuba). Despite growing up in a city that where the latino population is now the majority, I just didn't realize that kind of stuff was different.

Of course, I will also say that kind of stuff disappears as families become more assimilated (hate that word, but it fits here). The Mexican side of my wife's family barely consider themselves Latino to begin with. Of course, my wife's great grandfather was born here in the late 1800s. Just to put that in perspective, I have great grandparents that were born in Norway around the same time. It probably doesn't hurt that my FIL spent most of his youth in the DR because his dad worked for the state department.

Of course, I will also say that kind of stuff disappears as families become more assimilated

Right, it matters to the first generation, not so much to subsequent generations. My mom is Korean and tends to not care for Japanese people at all. OTOH, I have more in common with Japanese-Americans than I do with Koreans from Korea.

My little town (Harrison, NY) has a sizable cluster of Japanese expats. The town is walkable, and many of the wives don't drive. We even have a private Japanese High School in town.

Tanaka has supposedly narrowed down his teams to the Cubs, the Mariners, the Yankees, and Harrison (NY) American Legion Post 429.

Right, it matters to the first generation, not so much to subsequent generations. My mom is Korean and tends to not care for Japanese people at all. OTOH, I have more in common with Japanese-Americans than I do with Koreans from Korea.

Exactly. It's sad, but there are very few members of my wife's family that speak Spanish. The only reason my FIL amd 2 of his sisters speak it is because of being in the DR. His two older brothers couldn't speak it if they wanted to, but they were already grown up and moved out by the time my wife's grandpa had retired from the LAPD and took his job with the state department. In all honesty, her family really isn't much different than my dad's side of the family.

Aside from the posting fee, this is essentially a normal free agency process, right? His agent is able to relay to the Yankees, for example, that the Cubs have offered X over X years? Am I understanding that right?

Aside from the posting fee, this is essentially a normal free agency process, right? His agent is able to relay to the Yankees, for example, that the Cubs have offered X over X years? Am I understanding that right?

Aside from the posting fee, this is essentially a normal free agency process, right? His agent is able to relay to the Yankees, for example, that the Cubs have offered X over X years? Am I understanding that right?

Yes, with the caveat that Tanaka must sign by Friday (and will likely do by tomorrow in order to get physicals in and such).

It's all so much smoke being blown up our collective asses, though. Tanaka will sign with whichever team offers the most money. If that turns out to be the Pirates his people will be talking up the burgeoning Japanese culture in the whitest city in America.

I think you're probably right, Zeth, but I'd buy it might matter a bit if the offers are equal or very close to being equal (might go in a bucket w/tax rates, weather, etc.).

EDIT: Meaning, Cubs at 6/120 might be less appealing than Dodgers at 6/115, because of the weather, Japanese communities, and better flights to Japan. But Cubs at 6/120 is always going to beat Dodgers at 6/100.

I had a puerto rican friend in college who went on at length about relationships and attitudes of the different latin american communities towards one another. A korean friend did the same for Asia. Both conversations were eye-opening, although I can't remember many of the details.

It's all so much smoke being blown up our collective asses, though. Tanaka will sign with whichever team offers the most money. If that turns out to be the Pirates his people will be talking up the burgeoning Japanese culture in the whitest city in America.

I had a puerto rican friend in college who went on at length about relationships and attitudes of the different latin american communities towards one another. A korean friend did the same for Asia. Both conversations were eye-opening, although I can't remember many of the details.

I wonder if the language issue is a meaningful difference between the situations.

E.G. A uni-lingual Vietnamese person cannot communicate with someone who speaks only Japanese as easily as two people from two different Latin backgrounds who both can speak Spanish, right?

Re: variations within Latino population groups, I've had several very amusing conversations with my Salvadorean friend about the deplorable Spanish grammar (his judgment) of other South American nations. There's no greater grammar geekery than bilingual grammar geekery.

What about Ecuadorians? My student who are Ecuadorian think other Latinos speak atrociously, and the other Latino students think the Ecuadorians sound like they are out of an old movie or something. (Small sample size, admittedly. And obviously these differences in accents and slang are nothing like the language differences of Korean and Japanese and Mandarin.)

35, El Salvador is not a "South American Nation". It's a Central American nation. South America starts on the border between Panama and Colombia, rather far away from El Salvador.

36, Ecuador has two distinct accents, from what I can tell: coastal from the Guayaquil áreas and Highland from the Quito and Andean regions.

The one you are probably thinking is more Quito / Andean Spanish which does sound somewhat hickish (and it's certainly not rapid fire).

IMO, the most beautiful Spanish out there is that spoken by well-educated Peruvians (I have no stake in Peru, other than having being in Lima last year for a conference. It's an opinion I've held to for over 15 years).

E.G. A uni-lingual Vietnamese person cannot communicate with someone who speaks only Japanese as easily as two people from two different Latin backgrounds who both can speak Spanish, right?

I remember on a ski lift sitting next to a guy from Italy and a guy from Spain. Both could barely speak English, but they were excitedly trying to communicate about how similar their languages were. It was actually really cool.

I remember on a ski lift sitting next to a guy from Italy and a guy from Spain. Both could barely speak English, but they were excitedly trying to communicate about how similar their languages were. It was actually really cool.

I once was at a company function sitting at a table with an Indian guy, a Mexican guy and a Kazakhstani woman. The Indian and Mexican guys both spoke English and for some reason the Mexican guy spoke Russian which the Kazakhstani woman also spoke. The Indian guy was flirting with the Kazakhstani woman through the Mexican guy. I can't adequately describe how long it took for conversation to flow.

Obviously we'll know soon, but I wonder how much of a chance the White Sox really have here. Obviously they feel confident enough to spend the time to make an offer and to meet with Tanaka but they aren't going to trump the Yankees or Dodgers' offer, right?

According to the wiki its 15.9% Asian, and about 4.5% Japanese (of the total population). I had a couple friends from college who were from there.

I had a puerto rican friend in college who went on at length about relationships and attitudes of the different latin american communities towards one another. A korean friend did the same for Asia. Both conversations were eye-opening, although I can't remember many of the details.

In my opinion, pretty much all Asian people hate the Japanese, mainly for WWII reasons. However, there has been a fair amount of envy as Japan got rich and developed products and companies became worldwide leaders. It has been softening as more Asian countries got richer and the rise of China, but memories still linger. As China got richer and started flexing their muscles, that has been more worrisome. Even among Chinese people, people from Taiwan and Hong Kong look down on the people from the mainland .

In more recent times, Asian countries have looked more at South Korea - mainly to their cultural exports (not just Psy, but K-Pop and soap operas) but also some Korean companies have become worldwide brands.

Re: variations within Latino population groups, I've had several very amusing conversations with my Salvadorean friend about the deplorable Spanish grammar (his judgment) of other South American nations. There's no greater grammar geekery than bilingual grammar geekery.

It's funny, the same Mexican wife that married my BFF and referenced earlier has ####### about the Puerto Ricans and other Carribeans speak 'dirty spanish'. To be fair to her, her Spanish is very good. But my previously mentioned FIL is even better. The Spanish he learned in the DR was more Catillion in nature, but when he came back home he learned to speak Mexican Spanish. And once he became an undercover detective with LA County SO, he knew how to exploit different accents and such

//my FIL is a tea party type, but he is very smart. He ended up being a deputy for most of his life, but his mechanical abilty is amazing. The guy can diagnose and fix a trans or A/C problem just by hearing the symptoms. My wife and her brother totally get their smarts from their dad. If he was college educated, I would imagne he would have fell into the engineering field. The guy is seiriously a sevant in the area of transmissions.

I would like to add another interesting wrinkle to this. My (very white) parents have 6 grand children (with a 7th on the way) and all 7 of them are partially Hispanic. All of us married someone who was Mexican to some extent.

My oldest speaks Spanish (and he is way white, despite his mommy's maiden name of Ruiz), because we put him in a dual immersion program.

Obviously we'll know soon, but I wonder how much of a chance the White Sox really have here. Obviously they feel confident enough to spend the time to make an offer and to meet with Tanaka but they aren't going to trump the Yankees or Dodgers' offer, right?

It's not even the Yankees and Dodgers they have to worry about; it's the Cubs. All of the cultural stuff - size of Japanese population, desirability of city, ease of travel to/from Japan - are identical for the Cubs and White Sox as are non-salary financial issues - taxes. Given a choice between the Cubs and White Sox, it seems to me that there's very little chance that he takes the lesser offer. And unless the Cubs are blowing smoke to appease the fan base (which is definitely possible), I'd be really surprised if the White Sox out-bid the Cubs.

I wonder if the language issue is a meaningful difference between the situations.

E.G. A uni-lingual Vietnamese person cannot communicate with someone who speaks only Japanese as easily as two people from two different Latin backgrounds who both can speak Spanish, right?

Oh, sure. I didn't mean to suggest that the situations are directly compatible. Just that there are all sorts of nuances in the relationships and attitudes that I knew nothing about as a white american.

Given a choice between the Cubs and White Sox, it seems to me that there's very little chance that he takes the lesser offer. And unless the Cubs are blowing smoke to appease the fan base (which is definitely possible), I'd be really surprised if the White Sox out-bid the Cubs.

True, I wonder how much stock Tanaka places in the Cub's history of futility -- probably little if any. In the end the money will talk imo. One wild card is that Reinsdorf might see this as some huge opportunity to expand the White Sox' brand into Japan and with Dunn coming off the books this year and a number of other salaries already cleared, he could be willing to make an Albert Belle like splash.

I lived with a FOB Japanese woman and her fiance in Brooklyn's Chinatown for awhile, that was fun. She'd get greeted with "Ni hao" all the time.

In my experience, people from Asia outside Japan hate the Japanese. The Chinese government was flooding the airwaves with patriotic dramas showing just how bad the occupation was when I was last there (2011) for propaganda reasons. Koreans, older ones, are also quite pissed. However, Taiwanese, at least from the Taipei area, really love Japanese food/culture/cooking (and for that matter, a lot of Korean parents would send their kids to Japan for schooling... shh!).

Also, wouldn't surprise me if there were more Japanese in the DC area who haven't shown up in the census yet. Nowhere near as large a population as the Chinese in Rockville or the Koreans in Annandale/Ellicott City, but Mrs. Tanaka could feel quite at home in Montgomery County, MD should the Nats make an offer.

In my experience, people from Asia outside Japan hate the Japanese. The Chinese government was flooding the airwaves with patriotic dramas showing just how bad the occupation was when I was last there (2011) for propaganda reasons. Koreans, older ones, are also quite pissed. However, Taiwanese, at least from the Taipei area, really love Japanese food/culture/cooking (and for that matter, a lot of Korean parents would send their kids to Japan for schooling... shh!).

I've got very close ties to several Eastern European-American communities, so I think it's really interesting to learn what regional stereotypes there are in other parts of the world. Just what do the Butanese thing of the Nepalese?

I've got very close ties to several Eastern European-American communities, so I think it's really interesting to learn what regional stereotypes there are in other parts of the world. Just what do the Butanese thing of the Nepalese?

One of my professors was born in Bulgaria and moved to Canada when she was a child. She always found the regional rivalry between various parts of Canada amusing/troubling. She liked to say that growing up in the Balkans made a person a bit suspicious about people hating on other people because of where they're from.

I wonder if the language issue is a meaningful difference between the situations.

E.G. A uni-lingual Vietnamese person cannot communicate with someone who speaks only Japanese as easily as two people from two different Latin backgrounds who both can speak Spanish, right?

That's exactly what I was thinking. I totally agree with JRVJ's point in #2, but I can understand why, for example, a Dominican player would be more comfortable in a city with a lot of Spanish speakers, even if they weren't Dominican.

For a Japanese player in an "Asian" area that is mostly Vietnamese or Indian, I don't see the same benefits.

Nobody seems to know a thing about Tanaka the person, certainly not Derespina, and yet he thinks that Tanaka will make his decision based on considerations other than money? There's a HUGE sample of baseball players about whom we know a lot more than we know about Tanaka, and every single one of them goes for the money every single time.

Mine, too. But also there are other bigotries among them, all of which I find very interesting as an American. I dated a Chinese-Australian for a while who grew up in a home where the parents' first language was Cantonese. Her dad regarded Southeast Asians as subhuman, and from the way I took it this was a common attitude among people of his age and background. My Polish girlfriend's family absolutely hated Russians (I got bonus points from the gf for trolling her aunts with my CCCP t-shirt). My grandmother, who lived through the Blitz, hates Germans and the French, too, for good measure.

My Korean mother, born in 1941, told me how she was worried about how she was worried about how her family would react to her marrying my Caucasian father. When she told them about it their reaction was, "Totally fine, we don't care as long as he's not Japanese."